The good news from Minnesota

Our friends at the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota have been scouring Recovery.gov for the good news from the Land of 10,000 and eight congressional districts. They report:

MINNEAPOLIS, MN–You’d never know it without going online to the new and improved federal government stimulus tracking website, but the economy and jobs picture is really picking up in Minnesota’s 57th congressional district. There in plain sight, it states that 35 jobs have been saved or created as a result of $404,340 in stimulus spending, according to the figures found by the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota on the federal government’s stimulus tracking website on the summary page for MInnesota at Recovery.gov.
Over in Minnesota ‘s 27th congressional district, however, it appears to be a bleaker picture for those hoping for a turnaround. The federal government’s statistics indicate only 2.5 jobs have been created or saved despite the listed expenditure of $3,159,657 of taxpayer dollars.
Then there’s the 13th congressional district which outperformed them all. Hard to believe, but the hard working folks in the 13th congressional district generated five jobs from just $42,109 in stimulus spending.
That would certainly come as news to most Minnesotans, since the 14th, 27th and 57th congressional districts in Minnesota do not exist, except on the Obama Administration’s website. Nor does the 00 congressional district listed as spending $404,340 and creating zero jobs.
The North Star state, of course, has a total of eight congressional districts. You’d never know it by logging on to the federal clearinghouse for all things stimulus. The summary page for tracking where the stimulus money is going lists Minnesota as having a total of 19 congressional districts. Altogether, the eleven extra congressional districts posted received more than $7 million in stimulus spending, creating or saving about 50 jobs. Such a deal.
Many have raised questions about the creative calculations used to estimate the number of jobs created or saved thus far as a result of the $787 billion stimulus package. Stories have proliferated around the country of non-existent or over-hyped results, including in Minnesota.
The glitch in the government’s website only adds to the questions and concerns over the reliability of the stimulus spending jobs data and undermines the credibility of the tracking system.

We’ll get a link up to the Freedom Foundation post as soon as it’s available.
UPDATE: Andrew Malcolm has the good news from Arizona.
MORE: Grant Bosse writes: “Thanks for the great post on the bogus congressional districts on the stimulus tracking site. ABC News has been reporting this as an exclusive story, even though they got beat by several hours by Jim Scarantino at New Mexico Watchdog. Jim alerted his colleagues at think tanks around the country to this story, and we posted updates in our states.” Grant has posted an update at New Hampshire Watchdog. The Freedom Foundation of Minnesota’s update is now posted here.
THIS JUST IN: Dafydd ab Hugh delivers the good news from California.